Cirque de Soleil is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Part of the celebration has been a series of free shows throughout the Toronto Harborfront Park. This is wonderful for longtime Cirque enthusiasts who have wanted to take pictures of the wonderful costumes and colors sported by Cirque troopers over the years. So now you get a chance to see what has been admired for so long:
Maybe it is due to outdoors venue – but those colours look rather …uhh…firebrand, wacky and gaudy as the set design and peripherals. In the tent shows, Cirque uses dramatic lighting on relatively neutral costume colors. Another of the progressions to be seen in Cirque acts is towards more humor insinuated into challenging and Cirque-breathtaking acrobatics.
Another trend is novel props. My friends insist this has been a Cirque staple since the very earliest days. But I ask you, are those brass egghaed hats just abit over the top? Yet they are used so inventively in the show that one cannot but delight in the whole act.
Finally with humor comes a plot line – daffy, obvious, and exaggerated as seen in the screenshot above. This means that “Cirque Stories” become, if possible, more memorable and engrossing.
